Activity budget of Preuss’s red colobus (Procolobus preussi) in Korup National Park, South-West region, Cameroon

Preuss’s red colobus is critically endangered and endemic to Cameroon and Nigeria. It is one of the least studied red colobus species and therefore further knowledge about the species is crucial for conservation work. Activity budget of Preuss’s red colobus was carried in the southern part of Korup National Park, South West region of Cameroon for 18 months and was aimed at contributing to the understanding of the species general behavioural pattern for conservation. Time interval scan sampling method was used for this study. Two thousand three hundred and three individual observations were recorded from 273 group scans for 462 hours. Results revealed general activity time budget for the species, activity related to seasonality,  period of the day and age class. In general, this species spent 1: 1: 1: 4: 2 resting, feeding, moving, others and socializing respectively. In wet season they spent more time in all the activities 1: 1: 1: 1: 4 resting, moving, feeding, other and socializing respectively more than in the dry season. Their activity budget within a day revealed the following results: feeding 9: 7: 6 afternoon, morning, mid-day respectively, moving 1: 1: 4 mid-day, morning, afternoon respectively, resting 1:1:2 mornings, mid-day and afternoon respectively, socializing 4: 1:0:2 mornings, mid-day, afternoon respectively and other 1: 1: 3 morning, mid-day, afternoon respectively. Results on the activity budget of age class indicate that adults spent more time feeding (16.31%), resting (25.72%), moving (13.09) than juveniles and infants but infants spent more time socializing (5.55%) than adults (1.58%) and juveniles (00%). This study therefore gives a basic clue of activity budget of Preuss’s red colobus, specific for Korup National Park, experiencing human threat. This information can play an important part for the proper management and conservation of this species.© 2015 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Keywords: Behavioural patterns, red colobus, conservation, scan sampling, seasonality, time perio

Author Correction: Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21010-z

Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity.

Funder: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004189Funder: Heinz L. Krekeler FoundationLarge brains and behavioural innovation are positively correlated, species-specific traits, associated with the behavioural flexibility animals need for adapting to seasonal and unpredictable habitats. Similar ecological challenges would have been important drivers throughout human evolution. However, studies examining the influence of environmental variability on within-species behavioural diversity are lacking despite the critical assumption that population diversification precedes genetic divergence and speciation. Here, using a dataset of 144 wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities, we show that chimpanzees exhibit greater behavioural diversity in environments with more variability - in both recent and historical timescales. Notably, distance from Pleistocene forest refugia is associated with the presence of a larger number of behavioural traits, including both tool and non-tool use behaviours. Since more than half of the behaviours investigated are also likely to be cultural, we suggest that environmental variability was a critical evolutionary force promoting the behavioural, as well as cultural diversification of great apes

Author Correction:Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity (Nature Communications, (2020), 11, 1, (4451), 10.1038/s41467-020-18176-3)

The original version of the Supplementary Information associated with this Article included an incorrect Supplementary Data 1 file, in which three columns (L, M and P) had slightly different variable names from those written in the code. The HTML has been updated to include a corrected version of Supplementary Data 1; the correct version of Supplementary Data 1 can be found as Supplementary Information associated with this Correction.</p